The Justice Department warned California election workers that counting mail ballots from people it calls "likely" noncitizens could expose them to federal prosecution, ABC News reported, a day after the department sued the state over more than 20,000 ballots.
Why it matters:
- Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter wrote that knowingly tabulating such ballots could make workers "aiders and abettors to a federal crime."
- President Trump reshared the letter and wrote that officials "will all go to jail for a long period of time!!!" according to ABC News.
- Bay Area counties have said mail voting is proceeding under state rules while the lawsuit plays out.
What McCotter wrote
In a Friday letter to Los Angeles officials, McCotter said "the legal consequences for either facilitating or ignoring a federal crime are significant" and that "noncitizen voting in a federal election is a federal crime — and knowingly facilitating such conduct is equally unlawful," ABC News reported.
The threat followed Thursday's federal lawsuit against California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan, seeking to force officials to segregate ballots of people on a federal list until citizenship is verified.
California's response
Weber has said she will not disenfranchise thousands of Californians based on unsupported federal claims, and that the state still has not received the data or methodology behind the list, KQED reported. Gov. Gavin Newsom called the suit a desperate attempt to suppress California voters.
Election-law expert Sean Morales Doyle of the Brennan Center told ABC News the administration appears to be "laying the groundwork to challenge results after Election Day."
For Bay Area voters, county officials in Marin, Sonoma, Contra Costa and Solano previously told KQED they had received no federal demand and that vote-by-mail procedures were unchanged. Related: the DOJ's 20,000-ballot lawsuit.